I’m sitting in a coffee shop listening to my favorite music. I have tears streaming down my face and an overpriced Colombian coffee in my hand.
I have been trying to write this blog for 3 hours. Distractions are hard. Finding rest is hard. Community is hard. Abandonment is hard.
But hard doesn’t always have to be bad.
Distractions are hard because they are so prevalent. In this coffee shop, I want nothing more than to escape from reality. I want nothing more than to hide, because the Lord is teaching me about who I am, and who He wants me to be, and as good as that is, it is 100 times harder. I believe that the enemy tries to place distractions in our way so that we lose sight of Jesus. As much as I want to escape reality, I am pushing hard to find refuge in the Lord.
Finding rest is hard, because that means sitting with the Lord and being still with Him, even in the face of pain.
Community is hard because it means being vulnerable and honest. It means talking about the hard things that I wish I could hide forever. The same things that I want to escape from are the things that my friends are pressing into. Community is good because it means that there are people in my corner. People fighting for me day in and day out. People whose love for me has no bounds. People who take my vulnerability and honesty and only use it to draw me closer to Papa. They have become my safe space, my home, even on the days that I don’t want to get out of my sleeping bag.
Abandonment is hard because it’s new. It’s not the normal comfort I am used to. It is stretching me and growing me and changing me. And it’s only been one week. Abandonment is the good kind of hard because it leaves you in a place of trusting the Lord and his goodness.
“Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.” James 1:2-4 (The Message)
I am learning to press into the things that are hard, instead of trying to avoid them. I am learning more about Jesus and His character every single day.
Press into things that are hard. Press into things that are new.
Even in the face of hardships, joy comes in the morning.
So much love,
Carly
